Making a difference, one milk carton at a time

My grandfather was a dairy farmer in Kentucky. My dad grew up on that farm with his siblings, and as a child, I used to go up and visit in the summers. So as you can imagine, we’re big milk drinkers in our house.

My oldest son, Ty, started kindergarten this year. It’s a whole new world, to say the least. We’ve been packing his lunch every day, and every day I would tell him, “Make sure you go pick up a milk carton at school so you can drink it with your lunch.”

What I didn’t realize was that if you brought your lunch to school, you didn’t automatically get milk to drink. It just wasn’t anything that had ever been requested before (if you bought the hot lunch, you could get a milk, but not if you brought lunch from home).

So sweet little Ty kept asking his kindergarten teacher day after day when could he get his milk? This prompted the teacher to ask the school administrator if students could just purchase milk and not the whole hot lunch? Some research was done and soon an email circulated to the parents that starting immediately, children who brought lunch from home would be able to purchase milk for .25. They even set up a jar where the students could drop in their quarter and purchase their milk for lunch.

I know this may not seem like a “saving the world” moment to you, but to us, it felt like a victory. Even at five years old, Ty learned that speaking up and asking for what you want might prompt a change for the better. You never know until you ask (as Kim’s mom would say!).

For me, sometimes I get overwhelmed with everything on in the world. I feel ineffective because there’s so much to be done — I feel like how could I ever make a difference?

I was reminded this week that one person can make a difference — even if it’s just asking for a carton of milk. (I’m sure my dairy farming family is so proud!).

What are you doing to make a difference on this beautiful, cooler almost-fall day? We’d love to hear from you.